


Slow Burn

by AudreyV



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Bisexuality, Complicated Relationships, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Past Child Abuse, Post S2, Secrets, Sleepovers, Slow Burn, Vignette, past Laurel/Frank
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-12
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-23 16:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7470525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AudreyV/pseuds/AudreyV
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It started a month after Frank became the absence of Frank.  </p>
<p>--</p>
<p>Spoilers for S2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slow Burn

**Author's Note:**

> This originally began as a much too wordy version of the drabble that ultimately became [The B-Team.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7279360) I resurrected it after a lovely comment on one of my other Bonnie/Laurel fics. Proof that commenting inspires content! 
> 
> Set post-season 2.

It started a month after Frank became the absence of Frank.He was in the wind.Laurel told herself she’d been the one to end things.She told herself she could breathe just fine, as if the vacuum he’d left in her life wasn’t stealing the air from her lungs.

Every time she went to Frank’s, she thought it would be the time that her key no longer worked, but for some reason his landlord hadn’t attempted to reclaim the apartment.  She let herself in and curled up on the couch with a bottle of Jack and one of his bed pillows. 

She was half asleep and wholly drunk when she heard the jingle of keys in the lock.Laurel prepared to apologize for trespassing, or for her ex-boyfriend skipping town and not paying the rent, or for existing at all, but the woman at the door wasn’t there to deliver an eviction notice.

“What are you doing here?” Laurel blurted out, embarrassed that she’d been caught so messy and sentimental.

“The same thing that you are.”Bonnie sat next to her and took the liquor from her hands.She seemed about to drink from the bottle, but stopped and took Laurel’s glass from the coffee table instead.

“I miss him too,” the blonde admitted after several glasses of whiskey.“I just hope he’ll figure his shit out and come home sooner rather than later.”

 

***

 

A week later, the door creaked opened again.Laurel made room on the couch and gestured to the pair of glasses on the coffee table. 

 

***

 

A month after that Bonnie got there first.Laurel found her sitting next to Frank’s apartment door. 

“They finally changed the locks,” she muttered. 

“So we’ll drink in the hallway,” Laurel countered.An hour later, they decided the floor was too uncomfortable and went to Bonnie’s. 

 

***

 

“I should just buy another bed,” Bonnie said as she made up the couch for Laurel for the third time in a week.

 “I’m sorry I’m a pain in the ass.” 

“That’s not what I meant.”Bonnie caught her hand and held it for a moment.“You’re not.”

 

***

 

“We can just share your bed.It’ll be like a slumber party.”

Bonnie’s eyes narrowed.“No one does that outside of sappy television shows.This isn’t the _Gilmore Girls_ , Laurel.”

“You’re too cynical and slumber parties are a thing in real life.”Laurel replied.“Come on.Pizza, movies, makeovers, middle school gossip.You _never_ had a sleepover as a kid?”

“No,” Bonnie said abruptly as she went to the linen closet to get the sheets for the couch.

 

***

 

“I brought popcorn, _Drop Dead Gorgeous_ , and every shade of glitter eye shadow that CVS sells.”Laurel stood in the doorway, wilting under the blonde’s stern gaze. “Plus candy and some other stuff.And we can order a pizza, my treat.”

“Why are you doing this?”Bonnie’s voice was flat.

“Because you’ve never had a slumber party.”

“Fine,” Bonnie grumbled after several long moments of deliberation.“As long as you stay on your side of the bed.”

“Scout’s honor.”Laurel grinned and tossed the blonde the bag she was holding behind her back.

“What’s this?”

“I got us footie pajamas.You can pick if you want to be the unicorn or the dragon.”

 

***

 

“Your family wasn’t safe for you, was it?” Laurel said into the dark.

“No.”

Bonnie didn’t explain further, so Laurel let it go. 

 

***

 

Three weeks and _Mean Girls, Grease, Jawbreaker, 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde_ and the entire _Matrix_  trilogy later, Laurel stared at the patterns the moonlight was casting on Bonnie’s ceiling. 

“You’re thinking too loud,” Bonnie mumbled.“What’s wrong?”

“It’s impossible to think too loud.”

“Fine.  You’re not snoring loudly enough.  What’s wrong?”

 “Did you ever have that phase where you liked girls?”

 "No.”

“Oh.” 

“You know that I hate everyone.”

 

***

 

There wasn’t any moonlight the night that Bonnie laid in bed wide awake, a solid foot of space in between her and her frequent companion.

“I don’t think it was a phase.”

When Laurel didn’t reply, Bonnie assumed she was already asleep.

 

***

 

“Do you remember when Asher was going to sell us all out in exchange for a deal from Emily Sinclair?”

Laurel nodded.She watched Bonnie’s eyes flick back and forth across the ceiling as she chose her next words.

“It wasn’t me who convinced him not to testify.Annalise did that.”

The brunette held out her dragon-pajama-clad arms.After a moment, Bonnie tucked herself into them. 

“How?” Laurel asked a few long minutes later.

“She told him why my family wasn’t safe.”

Laurel listened as the story poured out.  Afterward, nothing she could think of to say seemed adequate, so she just kept her arms around Bonnie and hoped it was enough.

 

***

 

“My family is pretty fucked up too.Differently than yours, but…”

“But?”

“But daughters of drug kingpins don’t get to have slumber parties either.”

 

***

 

“Did you really think picking a movie about a pair of teenage lesbians who commit a murder was a good way to relax?”Bonnie glared at Laurel as she snapped the DVD case closed.  "As if we don't get enough murder in our day to day lives."

"First of all, _Heavenly Creatures_ is a great film.”

“And second?”

“I want to kiss you but I’m not sure if you’d hit me.”

 

***

 

Ten months after Frank took his suits and his suitcase full of money to parts unknown, his lover clutched the sheets and moaned the name of his closest friend.

“Are we bad people?”Bonnie asked afterward.

“It’s been almost a year and he hasn’t even sent a postcard.”Laurel reached out to caress Bonnie’s cheek, meeting her gaze.“We’re bad people, but not because of this.”

 


End file.
